"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

Sunday, May 29, 2016

There is a fundamental error by analysts that look at the Castro regime solely through the prism of U.S. - Cuba relations defined by economic sanctions without looking at the larger regional and international context. This is especially the case with regards to human rights and the so-called "principle" of consistency in the light of perceived double standards. It seems that all who argue against double standards inevitably advocate lowering standards to the lowest common denominator never raising them.

Paying lip service to human rights in China

Double standards as a code phrase for lowering standards
United States foreign policy in Saudi Arabia and China have, in the name of realpolitik, not been principled on the human rights front and led to outcomes disastrous for the United States. At the same time one must recognize that narrow and powerful interests have benefited financially from these arrangements. The argument advanced by those seeking to repeat the regrettable approach used in Saudi Arabia and China with Cuban foreign policy is one of consistency that results in ending a principled human rights policy in Cuba bringing it into line with other disastrous policies that have not served the just interests of the United States. To suggest that foreign policies in Saudi Arabia and China advance human rights at the expense of narrow economic interests is to be ignored or ridiculed. Meanwhile the President visits Vietnam and opens up weapon sales to the communist dictatorship while claiming to promote human rights there.

This is not an accident but to be expected for a totalitarian dictatorship that has sought to duplicate its political model around the world and has been successful in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.

Obama missed an
opportunity to explain and defend that idea of human rights, which
animated America’s founders, and which they bequeathed to Americans and
to people all over the world in the Bill of Rights to the U.S.
Constitution. Instead, Obama “personally” embraced an interpretation of human rights at variance with the philosophy of the U.S. Constitution.
What is more, Cuba has arguably done more than any other nation to
subvert respect for authentic human rights in the United Nations. With
his response, Obama indirectly but clearly endorsed that program. If
his words indeed reflect the U.S. approach to human rights, it is bad
news for those who defend human rights as natural rights to basic
freedoms, and who look to America for support and as an example of the
success of freedom.

Cuba has consistently defended the world’s worst human rights
abusers, like North Korea, from criticism in international forums,
claiming that such criticism is “political” and “biased.” In fact, Cuba
is the most vocal member of the United Nations seeking to blunt the
UN’s already blunt instruments for investigating grave human rights
violations and putting pressure on governments to reform, favoring
anodyne, “thematic” issues instead. Cuba has been a leader in proposing
bogus human rights mandates in the UN Human Rights Council, like the
“Independent Expert” on the “Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable
International Order,” which is nothing but a platform for ideological
attacks on free societies and free enterprise — in the name of “human
rights.”

Thanks in large part to Cuba, the international human rights system has become hopelessly clogged up with such institutions.

Obama’s betrayal of the idea of natural rights was also a betrayal of
Cuban human rights campaigners, and indeed people around the world
living under dictators who exploit the conflation of human rights and
welfare rights in order to defend oppression.

Rhodes left out an even more problematic part of President Obama's speech to the Cuban people. The President equated the ideals of the American rebellion that ended British rule and established the
United States with the ideals of the Castro revolution that lied itself into
power, claiming to be democratic, only to install a communist tyranny that 57 years later remains in power through terror and repression. Despite President Obama's claim, they are profoundly different and to equate the two not only confusing but offensive.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Human rights and democracy have been in retreat worldwide for the past decade. Between 2006 and 2016 there has been a steady decline in global liberty and human rights. The Associated Press reported that the Obama administration "is blaming a global crisis in governance
as well as atrocities committed by non-state actors for a decline in human rights standards around the world."

Severe Financial Crisis of the IACHR Leads to Suspension of Hearings and Imminent Layoff of Nearly Half its Staff

May 23, 2016

Washington, D.C. - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(IACHR) is going through a severe financial crisis that will have
serious consequences on its ability to fulfill its mandate and carry
out its basic functions. The Commission deeply regrets having to report
that on July 31, 2016, the contracts of 40 percent of its personnel
will expire, and at this time the Commission does not have the funds—or
the expectation of receiving the funds—to be able to renew them. The
Commission is also very sorry to report that it has been forced to
suspend the visits it had planned for this year, as well as its 159th
and 160th sessions, which had been scheduled for July and October.

The IACHR is alarmed by the fact that this situation will
result in the dismantling of areas essential to its mandate. The IACHR
is also distressed for the victims, petitioners, and civil society
organizations that had planned to participate in hearings, working
meetings, and other forums scheduled for the October session. The IACHR
also expresses its deep concern because the suspension of sessions has a
direct impact on the Commission’s capacity to make progress in
processing complaints of human rights violations, since it is during
these sessions that the Commissioners analyze, debate, and approve
reports on petitions and cases.

Moreover, it is disturbing that thousands of victims of
human rights violations will be left unprotected. The total dismantling
of some work teams and the cutbacks mean that it is inevitable that
the procedural backlog the Commission had been trying to reduce will
increase again and will reach a point where it is incompatible with the
right of access to justice. The IACHR also deeply regrets having to
face an imminent situation in which it could lose valuable employees
who have worked tirelessly for the rights of victims and have brought a
sense of duty and devotion to the cause of human rights.

In the last few months and weeks, the IACHR and its
Executive Secretariat have tried its best to confirm donations that had
been previously talked, but unfortunately these did not succeed. The
IACHR will continue to make every effort within its power to turn this
situation around immediately, to prevent the loss of 40 percent of its
staff and to be able to reschedule its sessions, visits, and all the
other activities planned for 2016. To this end, the Inter-American
Commission calls on the member countries, observer countries, and other
potential donors to make urgent financial contributions that can be
immediately available.

To avert this dire situation, the IACHR would need to
receive funds, or at least commitments in writing for donations, before
June 15.

Beyond the immediate financial crisis, the Inter-American
Commission suffers from a structural, systematic lack of funds that
must be addressed and resolved. There is a deep discrepancy between the
mandate the Member States of the Organization of American States (OAS)
have given the IACHR and the financial resources they allocate to it.
The regular budget of the IACHR this year is less than 5 million
dollars, which amounts to $0.005 per person in the hemisphere per year.
The staff of the Commission financed by the OAS regular fund consists
of 31 people; in other words, it has fewer employees than countries
under its jurisdiction. The other 47 employees are financed with
donations, which can be unstable and unpredictable, as the current
crisis shows.

In the last two decades, the Commission has made ongoing
efforts with the OAS Member States to secure a budget that would enable
it to work effectively to fulfill its mandate. As a result of these
efforts, the OAS General Assembly has approved a number of resolutions
expressing a commitment to address the situation; however, these have
not been reflected in a significant increase in resources. While the
Council of Europe earmarks 41.5 percent of its budget to the promotion
and protection of human rights, the OAS earmarks 6 percent of its
budget to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.

In this regard, the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights strongly urges the OAS Member States to take on their
responsibility to the inter-American Human Rights System. The IACHR
hopes that the next OAS General Assembly, which will be held in June,
will adopt a historic and far-reaching decision, one that reflects the
States’ commitment to the defense of human rights in the region. This
means radically increasing the budget of the OAS regular fund and
allocating to the IACHR and the Inter-American Human Rights System in
general the resources needed to fulfill the mandate the States
themselves have handed down. It is essential, imperative, and urgent
for the States to adopt a sustainable solution to this serious, chronic
problem and demonstrate their commitment to the respect and guarantee
of human rights with deeds and not just words.

The IACHR expresses its firm commitment to continue to work
in the fulfillment of its functions, inspired by the words of the
American Convention on Human Rights, which states that “the ideal of
free men enjoying freedom from fear and want can be achieved only if
conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his economic, social,
and cultural rights, as well as his civil and political rights.”

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and
the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission
has a mandate to promote respect for human rights in the region and
acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is
composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual
capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their
countries of origin or residence.

Patricio Aylwin Azócar passed away on April 19, 2016 in his beloved Santiago, Chile. Don Patricio presided over the unification of the democratic opposition in Chile, the No Campaign, and the democratic transition following 17 years of military rule under Augusto Pinochet.

We would have to be grateful to him for that example alone, but free Cubans owe him for much more. President Patricio Aylwin met with pro-democracy Cubans over the years in Santiago, Chile at his private home and freely gave his advice, but he did more.

Free Cubans are grateful, and today in Santiago, Chile when members of the Christian Democrat Organization of America gathered to pay homage and pray for Patricio Aylwin Azócar at the Frei family mausoleum, where he is being temporarily laid to rest, the above episode was remembered and given thanks for by the representative of the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

Berta was given the court docket number 30-260 of 2016. She explains the motive behind the regime's action: "What they are seeking is to have power of control over me so that I can not leave the country temporarily." She refused to sign the sign the indictment drafted by the police. Nor was the document handed to Berta Soler.

However, the activist said to Cubanet, "I will continue to live my life normally as always," and further noted that if this leads her to jail that she will "go as a prisoner of conscience, because I'm sure I have not done anything."

"These are the images of arrest (last Sunday), and I did not raise my hand for anything," and Berta Soler added that this action would not stop her from trying to travel outside of the country if she needed to raising the challege: Let Immigration at the airport tell me that I cannot travel."

On May 24, 2016 the streets surrounding the headquarters of the Ladies in White were blocked by state security agents to prevent members and friends of the Ladies in White from attending their monthly literary tea.

This needs to be placed in the current context in Cuba and the history of her movement.
Repression is worsening in Cuba and the Ladies in White are not exempt from this trend. Earlier this month Rosa
Escalona, member of “The Ladies in White”, a human rights group in
Cuba, along with her husband and three sons were subjected to a savage beating by Castro agents. All four family members suffered great bodily
injury, with her husband Alberto Pedro Freire Leiva being the most
critically injured. This unprovoked attack took place Sunday, May 8th in the city of Holguín, Cuba. Rosa made the following statement by way of telephone to the Cuban Democratic Directorate:

“Yesterday I was detained as I was
heading to church. I was once again threatened by members of the State
Security who stated that they would “finish with me and my family”. Two
men came out of Lenin Hospital with iron bars and proceeded to attack
us. My 25 year old son’s head was broken in two places and he received a
skull fracture, my two small sons received blows throughout their
bodies and I sustained direct blows to my ribs and a broken head. My
husband, Alberto Pedro Freire Leiva is currently in grave condition and
it is not known if he will survive. His spleen was broken in two places
and as a result, he has had massive internal bleeding with more than
1,000 millimeters of blood throughout his abdomen. My son
Yunior Alberto Freire Escalona is under observation in neurosurgery
where he might need to be operated. During the attack, one of the men
disclosed knowing that I was a member of the “Ladies in White” and a
counter revolutionary, he warned me to be very careful of him because
when he catches me on the street again he will run me and my sons over
with a truck.”

Lady in WhiteDaisy Cuello Basultodenounced that her 21 year old daughterwas arrested, violentlystrippedand forced tourinatein front ofpolice officersin a policestation inCotorro. The 21 year old was arrested along with her momand other family on September27, 2015 while on their wayto attend the Sundaymarch ofthe Ladies in White.The young womanwas lockedin a cell witha strong smell ofhydrochloric acidand nowsuffers from asore throat."She has a fever and feels verybad," reported her mother.

It is important to recall how the Ladies in White came into existence in 2003 in the midst of the Black Cuban Spring. Days after one of the worse crackdown's on Cuba's national civic movement that began on March 18, 2003
the wives, sisters and daughters of these unjustly imprisoned human
rights defenders formed the Ladies in White. An association of women
seeking the release of their unjustly imprisoned husbands, sons, brothers and
fathers.

In addition to their weekly marches demanding the release of Cuban
political prisoners the Ladies in White would also gather together for a
monthly "literary tea."
Each Lady in White would participate reading letters from their jailed
husbands, poems, and literature with the objective of raising their
spirits. During these gatherings there are moments of laughter and also
of tears.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. - Matthew 5:9

Reverend King has the answer to the question

David Beeson over twitter asked an important question: "Blessed are the peacemakers, we're told. Obama has been to Cuba and now
to Vietnam. So why aren't his Bible-thumping critics blessing him?"

The trip to Vietnam is still ongoing, but there are already shadows on the visit that would give peacemakers pause. First rescinding a decades-old ban on sales of lethal military equipment to Vietnam is not a nonviolent act or the action of a peacemaker. The response by China, warning the White House to not spark a “regional tinderbox” is ominous pointing to an arms race or even conflict.

In answering the question with a focus on the Cuba half there have been a couple of months since the visit and time to further reflect on it.

First, since the December 17, 2014 announcement by President Obama and General Castro the level of repression in Cuba has grown exponentially.

Obama in Cuba and in Vietnam being photographed in front of communist icons

Lastly, the visit to Cuba in and of itself had some very troubling aspects that could prolong the life of the dictatorship and send the wrong message internationally on the figure of Che Guevara. Within the context of the Cuba visit being photographed in front of the Ministry of the Interior with image of the Argentine guerilla in the background is unfortunate.

Human Rights Watch reports that Vietnam's human rights record remains dire in all areas. This in spite of the United States lifting economic sanctions on Vietnam on February 3, 1994 and normalizing relations on July 11, 1995.

US companies are investing in Vietnam and doing business with the Vietnamese dictatorship. Its totalitarian nature has not changed, but there is now a possibility of the United States selling weapons to this regime that represses its own people.

For example, Amnesty International reported on October 29, 2012 that two Vietnamese songwriters faced prison for writing songs criticizing their government. Vo Minh Tri, known as Viet Khang, 37, and Tran Vu Anh Binh, known as Hoang Nhat Thong, 41 were both held in custody since late 2011. According to Amnesty International both stood accused of "conducting anti-state propaganda under Article 88 of Viet Nam’s Criminal Code – an offense that carries a sentence of up to two decades." On October 30, 2012 Tran Vu Anh Binh (aka Hoang Nhat Thong) and Vo Minh Tri (aka Viet Khang) were sentenced to six and four years in prison respectively.

Tri, a.k.a. Viet Khang, was freed on December 13, 2015 and driven by police escort to his family’s home outside of Ho Chi Minh City. Tran Vu Anh Binh a.k.a. Hoang Nhat Thong who was jailed at the same time remains in prison.

Cuba, like Vietnam, also has a law 88 that carries up to a 20 year prison sentence. The fact that the laws and even the article numbers are the same may be a sign that Cuba and Vietnam are collaborating and sharing worse practices to maintain repression in their respective countries.William J. Dobson has described how this process occurs in his book, The Dictator's Learning Curve.

Human Rights Watch is calling on President Obama to press the regime in Vietnam to end its crackdown on peaceful activists and to hold free elections. Amnesty International is calling on the U.S. President to urge the Vietnamese communist dictatorship to free over 80 political prisoners during his visit to the country.

"The cause of human rights is a single cause, just
as the people of the world are a single people. The talk today is of
globalization, but we must state that unless there is global solidarity,
not only human rights but also the right to remain human will be
jeopardized." - Oswaldo Paya, December 17, 2002

"A
single spark can start a raging fire, which is why this year, the Oslo
Freedom Forum is dedicated to catalysts: women and men who have realized
that while individuals can’t change the world on their own, the world
can’t change without individuals. That even if you are the first person
to stand up, you won’t find yourself standing alone for long."

The 2016 Oslo Freedom Forum for the seventh time brings together human rights activists for a three-day summit (May 23 - 25) to promote human rights worldwide. Since 2009 Oslo Freedom Forum has been a gathering point for grassroots activists, policy makers and artists with themes focused on advancing human rights and freedom for all. In 2012 the Václav Havel Prizes for Creative Dissent was inaugurated at the Oslo Freedom Forum. The Oslo Freedom Forum has an archive of past presentations of all the Freedom Forums available online.

The event will be broadcast live over Livestream.

Two Cuban speakers will be addressing the Oslo Freedom Forum this year:

Rosa María Payá, daughter of the deceased democracy activist Oswaldo Payá,
is one of Cuba’s most vocal political dissidents. Payá serves as the
president of the Latin American Network of Youth for Democracy, and is a
member of the Cuba Decides campaign. In April 2014, Payá was detained
in Panama before the Summit of the Americas in what has been criticized
as a move of political intimidation. Since her father’s passing in a
mysterious car accident in 2012, Payá has repeatedly called for a formal
investigation into his death, speaking around the world on his behalf
and addressing a public letter to President Obama following the change
in U.S. policy toward Cuba in 2014.

Danilo “El Sexto” Maldonado is a Cuban graffiti artist and activist
whose public work has subjected him to ongoing repression and
imprisonment at the hands of the Castro dictatorship. A target of the
Cuban government, he has been detained numerous times for his protest
art. In December 2014, El Sexto was arrested on his way to put on a
performance art piece called "Rebelión en la Granja," with two pigs
decorated with the names “Fidel” and “Raúl.” El Sexto was charged with
contempt and imprisoned for 10 months without a trial. He was finally
released on October 20, 2015, following pressure from international
human rights groups.

Oslo Freedom Forum 2016 events are underway and can be followed over twitter.

The official claim by the Maduro regime is that all this is being done to combat the threat of U.S. imperialism, but the reality appears that this has more to do with maintaining and consolidating control over Venezuela.

Observers are wondering just how involved the North Korean Praetorian
Guard that Pyongyang has sent to assist Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro
will become. Hugo Chavez’s successor has declared a state of emergency
in the country while anti-government protests continue to mount. The man
behind the 'loan' of North Korean troops is General Kim Yong-chol, who
is close to the country’s Supreme Leader Kim Jung-un. The general is
both head of the special forces and the United Front Work Department, or
Tongil Chonsonbu, the intelligence service in charge of relations with
friendly political movements.

North Korean special forces are training with their counterparts of
Venezuela’s Grupo de Acciones Commando (GAC) and Chinese troops of the
21st Armed Group of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Caracas this
month.

Back in March, Pyongyang also signed a confidential military cooperation
and intelligence-sharing agreement with Cuba, even though the latter is
in the midst of a reconciliation process with the U.S.

One hundred and fourteen years ago today at noon the flag of the United
States was brought down and the Cuban flag raised over Havana as Cuba
became an independent republic and its first president, Tomas Estrada de Palma, took power and would serve four years and leave office. Prior to the Castro brothers taking over, the Cuban Republic had 12 presidents over its first 58 years which averages out to 4.8 years in office per president. Meanwhile since 1959 two brothers have run Cuba into the ground through an absolutist, totalitarian, communist dictatorship.

Former prisoner of conscience and independent journalist Iván Hernández Carrillo tweets: "Another May 20th without a Republic, without freedom and with a dictatorship in the hands of some tyrants perched in power."

One hundred and fourteen years ago today at noon the flag of the United States was brought down and the Cuban flag raised over Havana as Cuba became an independent republic. However, when looking at Cuba one should look back over the past 500 years and where it is situated today to gain greater understanding of the unfolding tragedy.

Cuba is just 90 miles south of the United States with a population of
approximately 11 million people. It is 780 miles long and has a land
area of 40,369 square miles and is the largest island in the Caribbean
and 17th-largest island in the world by land area.

There are many important figures that emerge in the 19th century but for
the sake of brevity will mention Father Felix Varela, Jose Marti,
Antonio Maceo, Maximo Gomez and the Bacardi family.
Father Varela was a catholic priest who is said to “have taught the
Cubans how to think” and entertained ideas of independence that led to
his exile to the United States. Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez were
Cuban generals that played important roles in both wars of independence.
Antonio Maceo was of a mixed racial background: part Spanish and part
African.

Jose Marti was a journalist, poet and revolutionary who organized and
advocated for the 1895 war of independence and spent most of his adult
life exiled in the United States in New York City.Maximo Gomez, was an experienced military man of Dominican origin who
oversaw the overall military campaign in the second war of independence
and of the three previously mentioned was the only one who survived the
war to see the arrival of the Republic.

The Bacardi family, began their world famous Rum business in Santiago de Cuba in 1862. Don Facundo Bacardí Massó founded Bacardi Limited
on February 4, 1862. The family would also play an important role in
civic life in Cuba, especially Santiago over the next century, and were
constant opponents of dictatorship, political corruption and remained
ardent Cuban nationalists over several generations. Forced into exile by the Castro regime the Bacardi family has maintained the traditions of the Cuban Republic celebrating independence day, carrying on the family business and continuing the fight for a free Cuba.

The beginning of the Cuban republic on May 20, 1902 had an asterisk –
The Platt Amendment: which allowed the United States to intervene in
Cuban affairs if U.S. interests were threatened. This Amendment was
gotten rid of in 1933 but left a bad taste in the mouth of Cuban
nationalists.

Between 1902 and 1952 Cuba progressed socially and economically but
faced challenges on the political front. For example in the late 1920s
Gerardo Machado, the democratically elected president did not want to
leave power becoming a dictator. He was driven from office and into exile in 1933 by a general strike. This was followed by a
revolution led by university students and enlisted men in what became
known as the sergeants revolt. This put Fulgencio Batista into the
national spotlight and by 1934 he was the strong man behind the scenes
even though democratic formalities were restored.

In 1940 all the political tendencies in Cuba met to draft what became
known as the 1940 Constitution and a presidential election was held and
Fulgencio Batista elected. He served out his term as president from 1940
to 1944. Due to a clause in the new Constitution he was unable to run
for re-election. In the election of 1944 the opposition candidate,
Ramon Grau San Martin, won and served a term as president from
1944-1948 and in the election of 1948, Batista’s political party again
lost at the general elections and Carlos Prios Socarras was elected president.

This democratic renaissance was brought to an end within days of the 1952 presidential elections, when on March 10th Fulgencio Batista
organized a coup against the last democratically elected president.

A little over a year later on July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro organized an
armed assault on the Moncada Military barracks that was a military
disaster but a public relations success. Although most of the men
involved with Fidel Castro in the assault were killed, Fidel Castro
became a national figure at his trial for the attack. At the trial he
portrayed himself as a democrat that wanted to restore the previous
democratic order and attacked the Batista dictatorship for its
usurpation of the democratic order.How the totalitarian darkness arrived in Cuba

Upon Batista’s departure from Cuba on December 31, 1958, Fidel Castro
began his triumphal trek across Cuba to Havana where he began to
consolidate power while continuing publicly to claim that he was a
democrat but privately began to infiltrate his movement with communists,
alienating many who had fought with him, and began to approach the mass media threatening them with violence if they reported anything critical.
As the months passed all independent media were taken over. Mass
televised executions imposed fear in the populace.

This is how the darkness of totalitarianism took over Cuba and 57 years later remains entrenched there. Cuba gained its independence on May 20, 1902 after centuries of Spanish colonial rule and four years of U.S. occupation following the Spanish American war.

José Martí was killed in battle against Spanish troops at the Battle of Dos Ríos, near the confluence of the rivers Contramaestre and Cauto,
on May 19, 1895. He is buried in the Santa
Efigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba.
Cubans the world over honor his memory and Cuban independence follows a
day later. Seven years and one day after Martí's death Cuba formally
obtained its independence on May 20, 1902.

Cubans across the ideological divide claim José Martí as their own. The
claims of the dictatorship led by the Castro brothers that Martí is the
intellectual author of their political project is ironic considering
that the life and writings of this Cuban patriot is the antithesis of
the Castro regime.
José Martí believed that "Peace demands of Nature the recognition of
human rights." A 57 year old dictatorship that rejects fundamental human
rights is the antithesis of what he fought and died for.
Furthermore, he proclaimed the idea that "One just principle from the
depths of a cave is more powerful than an army." A principle shared not
only by dissidents in Cuba but also echoed by Vaclav Havel, one of the
dissidents who had an important role in ending Communism in Eastern
Europe in the1989: "I really do inhabit a system in which words are
capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can
prove mightier than ten military divisions."

Thursday, May 19, 2016

"These situations in Cuba and Venezuela require the Human Rights Council´s attention before they spiral out of control." - John Suarez to the UN Human Rights Council 9/15/14

Venezuela under Maduro's regime on May 18, 2016

What is happening now in Venezuela could be foreseen, but the world chose not to act.On September 15, 2014 at the United Nations Human Rights Council under Item 4 on the agenda I read a statement ( 1 hour 33 minutes and 59 seconds) that made the case that the failure to address human rights issues nonviolently in Syria had ended in disaster and that this would be repeated elsewhere where human rights are systematically violated. Two examples offered up as future regional disasters where Venezuela and Cuba. Repressive regimes attempted to disrupt the presentation with points of order, but the full statement was eventually read out and is reproduced below.

We
welcome the conclusions of the Report of the independent international
commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and particularly the
observation that what was a “conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic, once
between the Government and a limited number of anti-Government armed
groups, has morphed into multiple shifting conflicts involving countless
actors and frontlines,” and we are in complete agreement with the
report that “the regional conflagration, of which the commission has
long warned, illustrates the fallacy of a military solution.”

The disaster in Syria did not arise yesterday but is the long term result of the failure to have human rights respected there.

Unfortunately
other areas exist that can also unexpectedly erupt into regional
disasters. Years of freedom of expression and association being
systematically outlawed, arbitrary detentions constant, along with
politically motivated beatings, torture and extrajudicial killings lead
to destabilizing responses.

Since
February 12, 2014 forty three youths have been killed while protesting
rising insecurity and vanishing rights in their country. Over 5000 have
been injured and 3,000 arbitrarily detained.Investigations
are needed into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 43 Venezuelan students and Cuba’s Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero.

Ms. Garro and Mr. Arzuaga should be freed.

These situations in Cuba and Venezuela require the Human Rights Council´s attention before they spiral out of control.